Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that a recent white paper and related survey from Cerulli Associates and Parametric suggests that affluent investors are increasingly seeking financial advisors who integrate tax planning into the portfolio management process in order to seek a higher net return (in line with their goals) rather than simply maximizing the absolute return on investments. Though notably, with only 47% of advisors surveyed indicating they provide these types of tax planning services to clients, there appears to be room for firms that are willing to go deep into personalized tax planning to stand out in the eyes of prospective clients who are seeking a more holistic and tax-informed approach to financial advice.
Also in industry news this week:
- Charles Schwab is raising the client asset threshold to $2 million (from $500,000) for referrals to firms that participate in its Schwab Advisor Network referral program, signaling that it wants to keep more clients within its own wealth management service
- Financial advisors and their clients are being targeted by AI-powered scams, according to NASAA, as AI tools available on black markets allow fraudsters to impersonate advisors and clients alike in an increasingly sophisticated manner
From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:
- A newly proposed approach to retirement income planning suggests a combination of TIPS and a broad-market U.S. equity fund could allow retirees to cover required spending throughout an extended retirement while protecting against inflation and offering potential upside that could boost discretionary spending as well
- An exploration of two options for how clients can sustain consistent inflation-adjusted portfolio withdrawals in a retirement that could last beyond 30 years
- Strategies that can allow financial advisors to create a steady "paycheck" for clients once they begin generating income from their portfolio in retirement
We also have a number of articles on charitable giving:
- Why donor-advised funds could be a particularly valuable tool for clients in 2025 amidst changes to charitable giving deductions under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that go into effect next year
- How comparing the upsides and downsides of custodian-based donor-advised funds with those held with community foundations can allow advisors to help their clients achieve the right balance of personalization and cost to meet their needs
- How an understanding of "proportion dominance" can help clients overcome hesitance to make contributions where their relative impact might be small, but their absolute impact will be large
We wrap up with three final articles, all about expertise:
- While it can be frustrating when a reader can't recall all of the facts from a book they read in the past, it's likely that they have already reaped significant benefits from this effort
- Why the best "deep dives" into a particular subject often take a multi-faceted approach (from books to interviews) and seek a variety of perspectives
- A research-backed process for developing expertise, starting with an understanding of the conceptual basis for the topic to a willingness to seek feedback over time (and why this process needs to be challenging)
Enjoy the 'light' reading!
